I own nothing but the plot of this story. These wonderful characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.
She Will Be Loved – Chapter One
The Capitol was hot and swarming with people and the breeze lifted my long brown hair up behind my shoulders. The 4th of July was in three days, making Washington D.C. one of the busiest places. Since it was my day off, I headed to the Roosevelt Memorial since I had always been drawn there in my free time. In the hot weather, my jean shorts were sticking to my thighs. My old concert t-shirt was starting feel a little grungy, my high-top Converse from high school were falling apart at the seams, and my purse was hitting my leg with each step.
I had my camera out and I was snapping pictures of all the tourists as I made my way to the memorial. I captured a little girl reaching out to her mother as she handed her an ice cream cone and when the little girl dropped the cone onto the sidewalk. I pulled my hair into a ponytail as I crossed the street and made my way around the Tidal Basin to the memorial. It was busy and I tried to find a good bench to sit on once inside but it seemed futile. Instead, I made my way through the memorial and snapped a few pictures here and there.
I made my way out of the memorial and to the sidewalk around the basin. The breeze was a bit cooler there and I pulled my hair down. There seemed to be a lot of people out by the basin, probably because it was cooler there. I found an empty bench to sit on about twenty feet into my walk and I sat down to take a look at my pictures, lots of children with their parents and scenery. I sighed stowing my camera away and thought about how I had to go back to work tomorrow.
I worked as an intern at Wolfe Publishing and I've been there since I graduated from Georgetown. My boss, Victoria, well lets just say we don't see eye to eye. I'm her personal punching bag, so to speak. I do everything from finish her personal assignments at midnight to sending her personal emails. I've been there for two years and I still have yet to move up. At least, she doesn't have a dog and I don't have to scoop shit.
The wind was starting to pick up and I stood up so I could make my way back to my apartment. Just as I was standing up, I heard someone yelling something along the lines of, "Miss! Watch out! Milo, stop!" The voice sounded familiar but I didn't have time to register it as I was hit by a mass of fur. My head hit the ground and pain radiated from my temple to the back of my neck. When I was able to get the mass of fur off, which I figured out was a dog, the someone I had heard yelling was coming closer. I sat up just as the dog ran up to the man and sat on his haunches in front of him.
The man walked around the dog and held out his hand as an offer to help me up. I reached up and took his hand and he pulled me up like I was nothing. I started patting down my clothes before I looked up at him and gingerly touched the back of my head, which was quite tender. When I did look up at the man standing before me I had to do a double take.
"Bella?" he asked.
And, with that single word every single moment from my childhood came rushing back. Every time I had watched a football game, every time I was in the emergency room, every time I was playing with his younger sister, who was my age, and every time I thought of home. Every memory of growing up in that small town came rushing back. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
It brought me back to 8th grade, when a drunk driver killed my dad. Then, in high school when my mom started drinking. I started losing myself in my schoolwork then and got into college the end of sophomore year. I left without out another word and haven't heard anything out of little Forks, Washington, since.
Life used to be normal though, before all of that. My dad, Charlie, was the police chief and my mom, Renee, was a substitute teacher. She was always flitting around to other jobs in between though. I had a normal childhood until my dad died. Then my mom started drinking and the cops would drop her off on our front porch. Needless to say, I left home at 16 without even telling her. I haven't heard from her since I left. If she did try and contact me, she didn't try very hard.
I ended up paying for the first year of college with some money my dad left me and living in a crappy apartment that I'm still in now. I had to pay for the rest of college with the money I made doing odd jobs and I just paid off all of my loans three moths ago. Life hasn't exactly been a picnic since I've been here. It's hard enough as it is living on your own but finding a job after graduating at 20 wasn't exactly easy either.
When I heard the dog, Milo, bark, it brought me out of my thoughts and I looked up.